Why does recording an animation not record the initial position of an object?
I think what you are trying to do is 'keyframe'. First select the object you want to animate, press I on your keyboard while your cursor is somewhere in blender viewport and a menu will pop up, select 'LocRotScale' since you are a beginner, ignore the rest.
A yellow diamond symbol will be added on your timeline. (Note it will be hidden if you deselect the object, but not deleted. Select the object again to see it.)
This is called keyframing.